So there's many talks on how the PLA Navy had (numerically) overtake the US Navy as the largest Armada worldwide, off course there are other ways to measure a Navy strength and size, such as tonnage and/or VLS counts.
But now the accepted wisdom is that the PLA Navy had more ships than the US Navy by quite a margin.
it is estimated that the PLA Navy had 360 warships
Personally I don't think this is true at all, basically there's a difference on how the US and China count their number of ships. In China's way eerything from warships , auxiliary, transports as well as hospital ship are counted as active PLAN assets.
OTOH, the US Navy separated their ships based on prefix designation, that is the USS and the USNS.
Commissioned warships in the USN are labelled USS , USS is a ship prefix used to identify a commissioned ship of the United States Navy and applies to a ship only while it is in commission. while In-service but non-commissioned Navy ships go by the prefix USNS, which stands for United States Naval Ship..
there are a total of 254 Commissioned warships (Carriers, cruisers, destroyers, LPD, LHD, SSN, SSGN, SSBN etc....)
while there are 216 ships with USNS prefix (Logistics, Tankers and ammunitions ships, Hospital ships, fast expeditionary vessels etc....)
for a grand total of 470 Ships in US Navy inventory.
But now the accepted wisdom is that the PLA Navy had more ships than the US Navy by quite a margin.
it is estimated that the PLA Navy had 360 warships
Since the release of the Department of Defense’s “2020 China Military Power Report” this past September, much has been made of China’s securing the title of the “world’s largest navy.” Indeed, the United States Office of Naval Intelligence has confirmed that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has surpassed the United States Navy in total battle force ships, approximately 360
Yes, China Has the World’s Largest Navy. That Matters Less Than You Might Think.
China’s fleet relies disproportionately on smaller classes of ships – and U.S. capabilities are bolstered by its allies’ navies.
thediplomat.com
Personally I don't think this is true at all, basically there's a difference on how the US and China count their number of ships. In China's way eerything from warships , auxiliary, transports as well as hospital ship are counted as active PLAN assets.
List of ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
OTOH, the US Navy separated their ships based on prefix designation, that is the USS and the USNS.
Commissioned warships in the USN are labelled USS , USS is a ship prefix used to identify a commissioned ship of the United States Navy and applies to a ship only while it is in commission. while In-service but non-commissioned Navy ships go by the prefix USNS, which stands for United States Naval Ship..
there are a total of 254 Commissioned warships (Carriers, cruisers, destroyers, LPD, LHD, SSN, SSGN, SSBN etc....)
while there are 216 ships with USNS prefix (Logistics, Tankers and ammunitions ships, Hospital ships, fast expeditionary vessels etc....)
List of Military Sealift Command ships - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
for a grand total of 470 Ships in US Navy inventory.